Robin Agnew
I was surfing around last week online and came across a "Best of the Decade" list. Being very opinionated, the list irked me, because it was so full of wrong choices, so I thought I'd better make up my own list. We now have a fast and easy answer when someone asks "What's a good mystery?" My criteria were: great story, great characters, prose that stands out, and re-readability. I've read most of the books on this list at least twice, and probably will read a few of them a couple more times. Across the board I also noticed that the books were extremely specific in their settings, much to the enrichment of every other aspect of the book. From one opinionated person to another, if you haven't read all the books on this list - get reading! Note: I used the original publication dates.
2000 Peter Lovesey, The Reaper. If there's a more deft or vivid example of the perfect art of storytelling, I'd love to see it. This wry and clever look at an Anglican priest who kills his bishop and whose crimes only accelerate as the book progresses, it's worth reading at least twice, at least once for Lovesey's crisp prose.
2001 Dennis Lehane, Mystic River. This was the only point of agreement between the other list and mine. This book is a classic, everyone should read it. It should be taught in school. It got my son hooked on good literature. Just one of the greatest crime novels ever.
2002 Julia Spencer-Fleming, In the Bleak Midwinter. A game changer, in my opinion - how good can a traditional mystery be, and how contemporary? Very, very good, as it turns out, and very contemporary. If you're not hooked by the pining of priest Claire Fergusson for the married police chief, you'll be hooked by Spencer-Fleming's gorgeous prose.
2003 Steve Hamilton, Blood is the Sky. Hamilton brings his passion for Northern Michigan to bear on this story of main character Alex helping his friend Vinnie look for his missing brother. The story is a non stop thrill ride, but along the way are some not unmeaningul thoughts on friendship, culture, and kinship. Oh, and Hamilton makes it all look easy.
2004 Michael Koryta, Tonight I Said Goodbye. Koryta very simply instantly catapaulted the P.I. novel into the 21st century. All the classic tropes are there, with his own twists, in this first tale of PI and gym owner Lincoln Perry. The ending is one of the best ever. Great Cleveland setting, as a bonus.
2005 Louise Penny, Still Life. This novel movingly nudges the traditional mystery into the 21st century, while still affectionately embracing some of the past tropes of a great tradition: the British Village mystery. This is set in Canada, but Louise is a decendant nevertheless of Sayers, Christie and James. Her beautiful prose and way with characters make the form her very own.
2006 Nancy Pickard, The Virgin of Small Plains. Just a straight up lovely novel, as far as I'm concerned. This story of past crimes come back to haunt the present couldn't have been more beautifully told, all against the backdrop of the Kansas plains. It's overlaid with the mystery of the "Virgin", which infuses the story with melancholy. Wonderful, not least for Pickard's descriptions of the storm systems moving through town.
2007 Laura Lippman, What the Dead Know. This is by far my favorite of Lippman's books, with a story that actually made me gasp in surprise when I got to the ending. This haunting story of two long missing sisters is heartbreaking, and heartbreakingly complicated, when one of them appears to return from the past. The matter of fact way the story is told and the detail of the emotional lives of the characters (not to mention the Baltimore detail) is absolute perfection.
2008 William Kent Krueger, Red Knife. It was hard to pick just one Cork O'Connor title since I think the whole series is terrific, but in this one the themes of violence and it's repucussions - which affect every character across the board - and the way Cork is torn between his place in the white community as well as his place in the Native American one will leave you thinking. The real beauty is that the story, with all it's heavy themes, is never heavy handed.
2009 S.J. Bolton, Awakening. This memorable and original read is all the things a great book should be: vivid, well told, full of terrific characters, and a teeny bit over the top. Snakes over run a small British village, and only reclusive, disfigured vet Clara can help resolve the mystery (and get the snakes the heck out of everyone's houses). A bit of a ghost story, a twisted village mystery, and an incredible setting make this novel a stand out. This one is an Edgar nominee this year.
